Cook Speaks About Trial Ordeal

Steven Cook has spoken about the ordeal of having to stand trial twice for an offence which in the end, he was shown he didn't commit.

Since Janaury 2012, Steve Cook has had to endure the nightmare of two trials, for a crime which, in the end he was proven not to have commited.

Speaking in the Bournemouth Evening Echo, Cook is quoted as saying: "When the jury said they hadn’t been able to reach a verdict in the first trial, it was devastating news for me and the family. I thought I was going to be able to put it all behind me and have the rest of the season to concentrate on my football. Instead, I had to pick myself up, put on a brave face and go again. Thankfully, we won promotion and, when you are winning, it helps take your mind off things. When I walked on to the pitch in the first game after I had been arrested, I felt people were looking at me in a different light and it wasn’t nice. It was always going to happen because it was news and not good news. I think people sometimes prefer to read news like that. That was the hardest thing for me. I had to tell my family and friends not to read internet message boards and social media sites because you see some horrible stuff on there. Hopefully, now it is all behind me, people can talk about me in the right way".